Kukla's Korner Hockey

For the trapezoid to be expanded by four feet overall (two feet on each side of the goal line). That gives goalies more room to play the puck.

Changes to regular-season overtime: Have teams change ends after regulation to force long line changes, which in theory should help create more offense. They also proposed a dry scrape after regulation to clean up the ice somewhat.

Faceoffs in offensive/defensive zone: Adopt IIHF hashmarks, which are five feet apart (NHL currently at three and a half feet).

The committee also wants more done to curb embellishment/diving in the NHL (perhaps via fine or additional penalty).

Kicking pucks: Committee wants to see more leniency and allow for a bit more when it comes to kicking motion.

And the meat of it: More discussion of expanded video review, particularly when it comes to goalie interference, but there was no real resolution on this by the committee on Monday. Simply the agreement that it will be further discussed.

NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell and NHLPA Special Assistant to the Executive Director Mathieu Schneider are non-voting members of the Competition Committee.

The worry among the group in the meeting is expanding video review in any manner could do more harm than good because of the accompanying expectation of getting the call "right" on what, by its very nature, is a subjective call.

"I think [NHL Commissioner] Gary [Bettman] said it best in the meeting when he said, 'Once we go to video review there's an expectation that we're going to get these calls right all the time,'" Schneider said. "You can have two reasonable people sitting in a room watching the same video and have two very different opinions on that video. It becomes, like Gary said, very complex. The feeling is right now we're not at the point where we could get a meaningful video review that would have a 100 percent outcome."

First, on the trapezoid expansion. It seems like everyone is realizing that goalies need to be able to play the puck. It’s a valuable skill that can set some guys apart from others and help teams move the puck up ice for quick counter-attacks. I feel like this expansion of the trapezoid is just a stupid intermediary step to ultimately going back to allowing goalies to play the puck, period.

Second thought, I love cracking down on embellishment in theory, but it’s pretty hard to judge objectively. This might open a can of worms and create a lot of appeals if you are throwing a lot of fines out for it. I’m all for seeing them try it, but my hopes aren’t high. I think, unfortunately, a moderate level of embellishment is just something we have to live with in the game—as long as the games are so important in terms of money, everyone is going to try to get that little edge.

Last though, on kicking. I’ve thought that outright banning kicking pucks into the net was kind of silly, but it’s a tough one. On one hand, the safety argument is really valid… skates are freakin’ sharp. But on the other hand, goalies are out there in body armor. I think we probably need to leave it as-is and err on the side of safety. If the game were more free-flowing in general, kicking a puck into goal might be okay, but as it is the game is so heavily focused on everything between the hash marks, down to the crease, that with all those bodies in such a tight area, you probably can’t have guys given the OK to swing their bladed feet about.